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6/4/2006

Ryan Humphrey

Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City

The act of customizing-restructuring and reworking different parts of something so that a new idea can take shape-has resulted in some of the most dynamic moments in America’s cultural history. Skateboarding, the birth of music genres like hip hop and house, and hot rodding are just a few examples of how people have mixed and matched bits of culture to suit their needs and express their creativity.

With his first solo museum exhibition, Ryan Humphrey: Empty Thoughts, Lame Excuses, and Decorative Lies, on view April 7-July 2, 2006 at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Humphrey uses customization to comment on what he perceives to be a safe and static art world by bringing the gritty, gearhead culture of cars into the pristine gallery space. His multimedia works shake up connotations of class and kitsch, and rescript unrealized dreams of his adolescent past into personal triumphs.

While his works acknowledge several figures, movements, and iconic objects in art history, Humphrey also pays homage to key musical influences that made up the soundtrack of his youth and continue to inspire him today: guitar rock star Eddie Van Halen and pioneer rap artists from the 1980s and 1990s. The result is an evocative aesthetic that taps into a boyhood nostalgia and juxtaposes high and low culture in a customized, multisensory mix of sound, color, and design.

For example, in Velocity of Transparent Aspiration (2005-06), Humphrey tricks out the hood of a high-end BMW with an emblem of everyman rock--the bold black and white stripes on red reminiscent of Eddie Van Halen’s guitar. By emblazoning the hood of a luxury car with the iconic Van Halen pattern, Humphrey invites questions about how we classify culture and acknowledges Van Halen’s omnipotence as a creative artist who customized music and guitars to create new expressions.

Humphrey’s car creations also excavate and archive lost opportunities from his adolescence, through hand-crafted “auto"-biography. Each work reflects an important experience or cultural reference from his past, including an unrealized dream to restore an old van rusting in his front yard and the possibility of taking a road trip in the 1964 Lincoln Continental he always wanted. By revamping automobile parts and imagery into Readymade memories and statements of autonomy, Humphrey proves that customization is a timeless art that helps us navigate our cultural crossroads.

Born in 1971 in Ashtabula, Ohio, Ryan Humphrey currently lives and works in New York. He received his BFA from Ohio University, Athens, in 1996 and his MFA from Hunter College, New York, in 1999. He is finishing postgraduate studies at the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York. His work has been included in group exhibitions at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh; and the Whitney Museum of American Art in Altria and the New Museum of Contemporary Art, both in New York.

Ryan Humphrey: Empty Thoughts, Lame Excuses, and Decorative Lies opens with a free, public reception 5:30-7:30 p.m., Friday, April 7, with an artist discussion 6:30-7:00 p.m. Museum admission and parking are free, and seating is first come, first served. Humphrey is a visiting artist at the Museum.

Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art
4420 Warwick Boulevard Kansas City, MO 64111
Open 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m., Tuesday-Thursday; 10:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m., Friday-Saturday; and 11:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Sunday. The galleries at Kemper East (200 E. 44th Street) are open 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m., Tuesday-Thursday. The Museum’s popular Cafe' Sebastienne serves lunch 11:00 a.m.-2:30 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday; dinner 5:30-9:30 p.m., Friday-Saturday; and brunch 11:00 a.m.-2:30 p.m., Sunday. The Museum and Cafe' are closed on Mondays.

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